


The Circle

by Zelderon



Series: One Last Time [1]
Category: Adventure Time
Genre: Bubbline, F/F, F/M, Get Pumped for 12 Days of Bubbline 2015!, Sugarless Gum
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-30
Updated: 2015-09-23
Packaged: 2018-04-18 01:31:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4687340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zelderon/pseuds/Zelderon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Like some deranged ouroboros, every few decades the same cycle repeats.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Ouroboros

Princess Bubblegum decides love is an asinine construct excogitated by equivalently senseless foolish organisms. To her love, is a weakness. In her opinion, it is a waste of energy and time. Love makes rational individuals do absurd things. 

She has invested a not insignificant amount of time and effort researching how to cure what she now knows is some sort of severe psychological ailment. Why on Ooo else would Marceline insist on prolonging her relationship with that cretin, Ash?

Like some deranged ouroboros, every few decades the same cycle repeats. Marceline and Ash go on a few dates, eat a few dinners, watch a few movies, prank a few pixies, fly around to a few places, ruin a few of her experiments, terrorize a few of her citizens…generally spend altogether too much time together. In its nascence, Ash invariably acts as the perfect gentleman. He is kind, funny, helpful, altogether far too charming.

It begins slowly, like rust creeping over a neglected sword. His dirty clothes start appearing, draped across a sofa or laying on a chair. He never has any money or food or time or energy. The insults always begin small, almost like jokes told between close friends. She always just laughs them off but centuries of experience have taught Bonnibel how to objectively analyze humanoid body language.

Finally, Ash always does something particularly idiotic. Marceline consequently ends up breaking up with him and going on some inane unannounced adventure. Of course she never tells anyone where she is going or for how long, but Bubblegum unfailingly notices things around her castle tend to disappear along with her. And then Bubblegum has to wait decades before she shows up once again unannounced at her window with nothing but an infuriating chuckle.

She’ll act like nothing’s wrong and that nothing happened and that Bubblegum hadn’t been alone running her kingdom while she went galavanting off to some distant land, having adventures and not worrying about anything because why on earth would Marceline the Vampire Queen ever worry or care about anyone but herself. Marceline will just float by her bedroom window one day as if she had never left and the next day some items will miraculously reappear in odd corners of the caste. 

The princess snaps back to reality upon realizing she has begun to…..reminisce a tad excessively. She knows this sort of behavior is irrational and meticulously arranges all her deleterious emotions into a small ball which she proceeds to mentally crush into a fine powder.

She needs to go find Peppermint Butler soon. He’ll know how to find the correct rhodolite crystals she needs to begin rebuilding her laser grenade prototypes that she has a sinking feeling she won’t be seeing again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out my tumblr at 
> 
> http://zelderonmorningstar.tumblr.com/ 
> 
> for more Steven Universe, My Little Pony, and Adventure Time stuff.
> 
> 12 Days of Bubbline 2015 is coming! It's happening from December 20th- December 31st. Check out the blog page here: http://12daysofbubbline.tumblr.com/


	2. The Final Iteration

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made some changes to the story and reuploaded the second chapter.

A feeble shadow groped the edge of a wood panelled wall as it crept along the side of an unassuming house. The faint plops of water dripped off stalactites and broke the surface of the subterranean lake. Strange, primordial shapes glided about within the water, ignorant and uncaring of the alien world that lay beyond the great meniscus.

Grey fingers braced against untarnished paint as a pair of beady black eyes focused on the girl sprawled across a blood red sofa. Marceline’s nose twitched and Ash quickly ducked below the window as she got up and floated into the kitchen. Ash tensed up, ready to cast a spell that would quickly take him away from the lair of the vampire queen.

He heard the soft ding of an oven and ventured a glance to look up. He saw Marceline just as she bent down to open the oven door. Ash whispered a quick spell that allowed the atoms of his body to find the cracks and spaces between molecules of the wall and appear inside the home of the vampire queen. Ash could see Marceline bend over, inspecting something in the oven. He swiftly crept across the floor until he reached the door jamb leading to the kitchen. His hand reached to his belt and dug into a black canvas pouch, scooping out a fistful of aubergine powder. He could hear Marceline pull something out of the oven and set it on her counter.

As he heard the click of the oven door shutting, he readied himself. He could feel the raw magical power needed to subdue the daughter of evil radiating from the substance clutched in his hand. He flung the powder into Marceline’s face right as she crossed the threshold into her living room. Marceline’s eyes widened in surprise as she saw the intruder in her house She weakly attempted to swipe at his face and tear into his flesh with fingers that half turned into sharp claws, but only succeeded in ripping at the void directly in front of Ash's face. She started to snarl but then immediately fell to the ground.

The tiny purple pollen grains had found a suitable host and infiltrated her body through the microscopic pores in her skin. They were no longer imprisoned in his enchanted dragon cotton pouch and free to infect. They would keep her asleep as long as Ash needed until he was done with his mission. He knew the phrase needed to kill all of them at once.

It had taken him ages to master the techniques needed to perfectly cultivate Dragon's Sleep flowers. Properly harvesting it's pollen alone had taken him over a week of constant, sleepless work. This particular batch had been grown for over a decade and watered with his own blood. Every day he whispered lost archaic spells to the small patch of sprouts until finally one day a single blossom appeared. He told it stories of his life and his deepest secrets until ever fiber of his being was intertwined with the flower. It's pollen, his children, would listen to his every wish.

Ash laid down on the floor next to Marceline and pulled out a tan linen pouch. He briefly brushed her out of her face and grasped one of her hands. The other hand pinched out a loose clump of sparkling yellow powder from the bag and brought it to his nose. He stilled his rapidly accelerating heart and inhaled deeply.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out my tumblr at 
> 
> http://zelderonmorningstar.tumblr.com/ 
> 
> for more Steven Universe, My Little Pony, and Adventure Time stuff.
> 
> 12 Days of Bubbline 2015 is coming! It's happening from December 20th- December 31st. Check out the blog page here: http://12daysofbubbline.tumblr.com/


End file.
